New Delhi: The Opposition MPs, along with the 12 suspended MPs, staged a march from the Parliament House to Vijay Chowk outside the Parliament building, accusing the government of trampling democracy by suspending the MPs and not allowing the Opposition to raise issues.
Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi, who joined the protest, said the suspension was akin to crushing the voice of people of India. “We are here with our suspended members, this is a symbol of crushing the voice of people of India. They have been suspended for two weeks and they have done nothing wrong,” Rahul said, after the Opposition MPs staged a protest march against the suspension. “We are not allowed to discuss important issues in Parliament, it is very unfortunate and throttling of democracy is taking place,” he said.
DMK leader Tiruchi Siva said the suspension was against rules, and accused the government of being rigid. He also mentioned the Farm Bills, stating that they were passed flouting all rules.
“As per the rules, the suspension has not taken place as it should have. We are insisting for revocation of suspension, the government is adamant. This is totally unconventional, unprecedented. If something has happened in the past, there has been flexibility, but only rigidity has been seen,” Siva said.
“On the day Farm Bills were passed, the government flouted all rules of the procedure of the House. Bills were bulldozed and motions were not put to vote… We are repeatedly insisting every day, Ministers are making allegations that we are unruly, we are not so, we want the House to function smoothly. We can’t leave our colleagues,” he added.
The Opposition has said that the members’ suspension for the incident that took place in the last session is against the rule. The government has said that the suspended members should apologise for their conduct.
On Tuesday, as opposition MPs protested in Rajya Sabha, Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu once again said the members should apologise for their behaviour.
Unruly and ugly scenes were witnessed during the passage of General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Amendment Bill on August 11 in Rajya Sabha, after hours of peaceful debate on OBC bill, during the Monsoon session of Parliament.
The 12 MPs who have been suspended, are Elamaram Kareem, CPI (M), Phulo Devi Netam (INC), Chhaya Verma (INC), Ripun Bora (INC), Binoy Viswam (CPI), Rajmani Patel (INC), Dola Sen (TMC), Shanta Chhetri (TMC), Syed Nasir Hussain (INC), Priyanka Chaturvedi (Shiv Sena), Anil Desai (Shiv Sena) and Akhilesh Prasad Singh (INC). The MPs were suspended for the whole duration of Winter Session of Parliament.
